The invention relates to an apparatus for the wireless transmission of data and energy between a part, for instance a motor-vehicle sliding door, a passenger seat, or a similar part, and a motor-vehicle body having an electrical power supply, and a body-mounted electronic controller having a body-mounted coil, and a part-mounted electronic controller having at least one respective part-mounted coil, both coils being inductively coupled to transmit data as well as energy over a common send/receive path.
Such an apparatus is described in EP 0,616,924. Here there is a transformer that moves energy in one direction and data in both directions. Switches on both sides of the transformer serve to monitor how the transfer is going as well as to evaluate and control it. In particular the transformer has a primary and a secondary winding with one of the windings being fixed while the other winding can move relative to it. The stationary winding is fixed adjacent the steering column of a motor vehicle while the movable coil is connected with the motor-vehicle steering wheel.
In addition parts such as a sliding door built into or onto a motor-vehicle body are know basically from German 197 17 490. Here an electrical supply cable is wound up on a drum with a rewinder. The one end of the supply cable is fixed at the core of the drum of the body-mounted cable drum and the other end is connected to the sliding door. Such connection devices are effective but have a limited service life and thus wear out so they must periodically be serviced.
In contrast to the standard personal-use motor vehicles, larger vehicles such as so-called minivans or full-size vans or sport-utility vehicles have in recent years taken up more of the market. Such vehicles are usually provided with at least one motor-vehicle sliding door or doors that are usually arranged on the passenger side behind the passenger-side front door. In order to park in ever smaller spaces such use of sliding doors is likely to be found even in other vehicles. Sliding doors can be opened in relatively cramped surroundings and make it easier to get in or out or load or unload through the substantially wide open space left by the open sliding door, but are quite a bit more expensive compared to the standard hinge-mounted swinging door.
Like swinging doors, sliding doors are often provided with various electrical devices as for example an active door-blocked detecting device, a door latch with electrical opening or power assist, as well as central locking systems and security devices with diagnosable two-way communications, an electrical window opener as well as monitoring devices, e.g. for the window opener and the door latch. In addition it is necessary to transmit electrical energy to power the various devices and control data to the electronic controllers in the (sliding) door, which is more expensive to do in a sliding door due to the nonfixed contact than in a swinging door.
It is also known from German 197 06 393 to transmit data in a motor vehicle between a body-mounted electronic controller and a door-mounted electronic controller in a wireless manner via a transmitter and a receiver communicating via HF or by sound or infrared light.
In this system the energy supply for the electronic controllers in the sliding door when it is open is constituted by a battery that if necessary can also be fed by a solar panel. When the door is closed the energy supply for the door-mounted electronic controller is taken over by the vehicle-mounted battery via a contact system, preferably a multiple-pole plug and socket.
Japanese patent 07-267,020 describes how the electrical supply for devices in the sliding door take place over a plug/socket system, the plug and socket being in contact with each other when the door is closed to transmit electrical energy to the devices.
The system of German 198 14 670 has a motor-vehicle sliding door provided with a battery for its electronic controller that is connected by a plug/socket arrangement when the door is closed for charging purposes.
Finally German 196 02 316 describes an apparatus for transmitting data or energy. It has an antenna tuned circuit that is made to oscillate by a trigger signal. The oscillations are transferred to a transponder tuned circuit.
Such data and energy transmission and supply systems for electronic controllers are generally acceptable. There is however the problem that a plug/socket system exposes the contacts to the air when the door is opened so they can corrode or so that can actually meet physical harm. In this manner the connection for transmitting the small (signal) currents (of about 10 mA and less) for example can lead to problems because of the high resistance.
The use of a separate battery in the (sliding) door to supply current to the electronic controller requires regular maintenance to ensure that the energy supply continues to function. The invention proposes hereto a solution.
It is a technical object of the invention, to so improve such an apparatus that overall one gets a cost-effective, robust, and generally applicable transmission of energy and data.
This object is attained according to the invention by an apparatus of this type wherein the part-mounted coil is surrounded by the body-mounted coil and is longitudinally slidable inside the body-mounted coil or vice versa. In other words, the invention of course encompasses the reverse system whereby the body-mounted coil is surrounded the part-mounted coil and is longitudinally slidable inside the part-mounted coil.
Preferably the body-mounted coil and the part-mounted coil extend generally parallel to each other for inductive coupling or have overlapping portions. It is only necessary that the inductive coupling be maintained with the produced electromagnetic fields overlap.
Thus the body-mounted coil is connected both to the electrical power supply as well as to the electronic controller. The part-mounted coil on the other hand is connected with the respective electronic controller as well as with a load.
In this manner the above-detailed contact problem is cured because wire-connected data and/or energy transmission is done away with. In addition the problems of the known roll-up mechanism (see German 197 17 490) are no longer to be feared because there is none. The same is true for a prior-art battery in the sliding door since so that the installation and maintenance costs for it are spared. Even safety is improved because the charge state of this battery does not need to be monitored. In accordance with the invention the send/receive path can also be used only for transmitting data or energy for the part or sliding-door electronics.
Contrary to the teachings of EP 0,640,734 there is wireless transmission of energy and data between individual body parts and not between a key and the door latch. The same is true with reference to German 196 02 316.
It should be emphasized that the described body and part according to the invention could also be a seat or similar part such as a child seat. In a passenger seat the described system insures that person-specific data is transmitted without wires from the body-mounted electronic controller. This person-specific data is generally provided when a dialog between a (HF remote) key and a body-mounted electronic controller is established. This is generally initiated by a user inserting the right key peg in an ignition switch on the dashboard after positively interrogating and identifying the key type.
In this manner all user- or person-specific data can be transmitted by the key to the body-mounted electronic controller which at its end handles the appropriate loads or parts built onto or into the vehicle. This could include for example the desired outside mirror setting, the positioning of the seat and seat back, and if necessary the illumination and dashboard lighting. To this end the data and/or energy supply are set up as described above.
Thus the invention makes it possible to supply built on systems, for example a removable child seat with data and/or energy. It is possible to identify such a child seat when installed in a passenger seat and turn off the respective air bag so that in case it operates a child in the child seat is not injured. It is also possible to create a data and/or energy exchange between the body-mounted electronic controller and the add-on part, here the child seat. It is possible simply to determine if a (removable) seat or child seat is present.
It is further within the scope of the invention to establish such a send/receive path between a nonremovable body-mounted base part of a vehicle radio and a removable part of the radio. In this manner the universal character of the described system for data and/or energy transmission is clear.
This also makes an example clear whereby in a mobile home serving as body a satellite key is supplied in the described manner with data and/or energy. Typical uses are still to be seen so that doors, in particular sliding doors, can in this manner be supplied with energy and/or data.
Further features important to the invention are described in the following. Thus the invention suggests that the body-mounted coil is an air or ferrite coil with an elongated rectangular section and an enclosed longitudinal space for the part-mounted coil slidable therein. Normally this body-mounted coil is mounted in already provided guide rail for the sliding door or is mounted immediately adjacent this guide rail.
Here it is important that the body-mounted coil be insulated from the normally metallic body. It is further recommended that the part-mounted coil be arranged in or on a guide slide for guiding the sliding door in the guide rail. This uses already provided elements of a sliding door, namely a guide rail on one side and on the other side the guide slide. They must only be modified to comply with the invention by being provided with the claimed coils. As a result this is a particularly robust and compact system because on the one hand the guide rail and on the other hand the guide slide can be used to hold and/or protect the respective coils.
In order to insure a particularly good inductive coupling between the body-mounted coil and the part-mounted coil, it is further suggested that the part-mounted coil has a cross-sectional size corresponding to a width of the longitudinal space. It can form a transponder together with the electronic unit or microprocessor connected to it. In this case the preferred coils and electronic circuits form the transponder by means of which there is a preferably bidirectional exchange of data and/or energy.
The transmission of data and/or energy takes place as follows. To supply energy to the sliding-door electronic controller and load the body-mounted coil or the coil element operates as a transmitting antenna and transfers to the part-mounted coil as a receiver a voltage (preferably with a frequency of 125 kHz or 13.56 MHz). Thus the energy transmission is carried out in pulses in order to minimize the current load of the entire apparatus. In other words periodic signals with a period of preferably 150 ms and a duration of about 5 ms are sent in order to supply energy to the part-mounted electronic controller or its load.
In order to facilitate data transfer at the same and/or another time the above-described pulsating voltage or its signal are modulated. In other words the alternating-current portion is modified with a low-frequency information signal which is received in the part-mounted electronic controller or its receiver, is filtered, and then demodulated. In any case the overlain low-frequency information signal can be filtered out and processed in a microprocessor in order to convert the various signals into the appropriate actions. This is known per se.
It is also possible in the scope of the invention to work with a frequency of from 13 to 13.56 MHz. This always insure that all possible information can be transmitted from the body to the sliding door or vice versa. Thus for example the following devices built into a sliding door can be queried: locking-pawl switch, fork switch, central-lock switch, antitheft-protection switch, child-safety switch, door-blockage switch, position detector for the window lifter, and so on.
Of course in addition to the wireless energy transmission it is possible to use a hard-wired energy transmission that is particularly useful in the case that the sliding door is closed. In this case the described devices can be connected conventionally, that is via contacts, with the necessary energy sources on the motor-vehicle body. It is therefore possible to supply only the electronic controller with energy, while the other devices can be fed with current by a hard-wired connection.
This always insures that the electronic controller and devices mounted on the sliding door (for example a central locking device and/or a window drive) are supplied with data and energy regardless of the actual position of the sliding door. In other words according to the invention the same status and functioning is achieved as by a pivotal door or hatch that is supplied conventionally by a hard-wired connection with the necessary data and/or energy. This constitutes a major advantage.